As many as half of the 3 million new iPads Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) has sold are Long Term Evolution (LTE)-capable, a UBS AG research note suggests Wednesday.

Apple has said that it sold 3 million new iPads in 10 countries since the launch last Friday (March 16). UBS analyst John Hodulik writes that up to half were sold in the U.S., and both AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless saw strong sales.

Many of the new iPads sold were 4G models, Hodulik writes:

Why this matters
Strong LTE sales would instantly make the new iPad a major device on the AT&T and Verizon 4G networks. Tablets typically use up to five times as much data as a similar smartphone. (See What We Mean When We Say '4G', Mapping LTE: AT&T & Verizon's 4G Footprints and Cisco: Tablets Hog More Data Than Smart Phones.) For more

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile